Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

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Tiger Eyes
By Judy Blume

When Davey's father dies, she and her family move to New Mexico to deal with all their feelings. And so many feelings happen.

Davey's father dies in a violent shooting at their convenience store, so her, her mother and her brother move down to live with their aunt and uncle in New Mexico. When their mother checks out with grief, the aunt and uncle become very protective. Davey responds to this by making friends with Wolf, a hot dude she met hiking, and Jane, a teen with a drinking problem. After a year, Davey deals with her feelings about, well, everything, and they all go home changed.

The book was banned for teenage depression, mild sex attitudes, religious debates, and underage drinking. It has held a place on the ALA banned books list since the list was made, falling around the 80s out of 100. While there are few accounts reported online after a quick search, the placement on the list shows it is relevant and used forty years after publication.

The book is standard teen fare set up by Blume way back when, copied by many to the point of rather blandness. The overbearing parents and teen angst seem tired but are well executed. Well written and short, the book is good for a quick afternoon and won't frighten away most teengers if you tell them it is all about sex, violence, and drinking.

Banned

1984

Indiana - Challenged at Daleville Elementary due to sexual content

Pennsylvania - Removed from Hanover School District's elementary and secondary libraries, later placed on "restricted shelf," for being "indecent and inappropriate"

Wyoming - Challenged at Casper school libraries

1999 - Louisiana - Removed from the Many Junior High library shelves for sexual content, drinking at school, and language

Sources

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014.

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/